I watched the trailer for Michael Moore’s forthcoming Fahrenheit 9/11 that did so well at Cannes. I must say, even though I disagree with his politics, I think Moore is a great filmmaker. I was saying that before Bowling for Columbine, back in the TV Nation and Roger & Me days. He has a knack for getting audiences excited about this topics, with a combination of humor and outrage.

My problem with Moore isn’t that he’s a leftist, which is fine by me. I have trouble with his ethics. Filmmaking is storytelling, and even though you might label your genre as non-fiction, that doesn’t mean you’re telling the truth.

Images can be manipulated just as easily as any other medium. Moore knows this implicity because he knocks American media so much in his films. Why should we trust Moore any more than anyone else? Doesn’t he stand to benefit from the success of his films just as much as any corporation would if we bought their products?

He tries to pass off his films as documentary, in the tradition of National Geographic special on the jungles of South America or my dad’s vacation slides. While that’s a nice notion, it’s not really accurate. He’s trying to be as persuasive as the next guy will use any means necessary to justify his position. If he’d just admit that, then I’d be fine with him. But rather, he holds rather doggedly to his hatred of President Bush and most conservatives. Such a position really hurts his credibility. I’m sure this film will be entertaining, though.

UPDATE: Apparently Ray Bradbury isn’t too happy that Moore has pilfered the title of his classic book for this film. He had a few choice words to say here. There’s also a great interview with him at salon.com. This guy is awesome.